The firms will develop a solution which incorporates Trina Solar’s modules with QBotix’s QBotix Tracking System (QTS). Image: QBotix.

Trina Solar US Development Company, a subsidiary of PV company Trina Solar, has entered into a collaboration agreement with start-up firm QBotix in order to develop an intelligent tracker and module solution.

As a result, Trina Solar will become the first company to utilise mobile, intelligent rugged robotics for the operation of solar power plants.

Under the agreement, the companies will work together to develop a scalable “building block” design solution which incorporates Trina Solar’s modules with QBotix’s QBotix Tracking System (QTS).

The companies will also work together to test the solution in commercial projects within the US and outside the US. The QTS tracking system is currently being advance field-tested in commercial deployments in California, Arizona and Japan.

Wasiq Bokhari, CEO of QBotix, said: "We are looking forward to working with Trina Solar to deploy PV systems combining Trina modules and our breakthrough QTS platform to dramatically lower installation times and LCOE, and to provide unprecedented system level intelligence for the solar industry."

Randy Wu, Trina Solar's General Manager, Project Development, Americas, added: "We are both pleased and excited to team with QBotix, whose solution is capable of playing a vital role in lowering energy production costs for our in-house and customer project portfolios. This collaboration is in line with our focus to partner with leading technology developers to enhance the quality and performance advantages of our products."

Now that the PV industry has unquestionably entered a new growth phase, all eyes are on which technologies will win through into the mainstream of PV manufacturing. PERC, n-type, p-type bifacial, heterojunction – all have become familiar terms in the ever-growing constellation of solar cell technologies. The question is which will offer manufacturers what they are looking for in improving efficiencies and cutting costs.

Although the past few years have proved extremely testing for PV equipment manufacturers, falling module prices have driven solar end-market demand to previously unseen levels. That demand is now starting to be felt by manufacturers, to the extent that leading companies are starting to talk about serious capacity expansions later this year and into 2015. This means that the next 12 months will be a critical period if companies throughout the supply chain are to take full advantage of the PV industry’s next growth phase.